Features

Introduction

The global spread of political Islam - or, Islamism - is a complex, nuanced, and fluid phenomenon with critical implications for the durability of international human rights architectures premised on universal norms; for state sovereignty; and for peace, order, and the rule of law. There is ample evidence to suggest the detrimental effects for democracy, economic justice, and security caused by ideas and actors operating under the rubric of Islamism, shorthanded to mean the global spread of sharia law. The Global Political Islam section will provide timely information, updates, and analysis around four focus areas associated with the globalization of Islamism.

Global Political Islam

July 11, 2014

Islamic bonds (“sukuk”) were issued this week by government of the United Kingdom, making good on Prime Minister David Cameron's widely publicized pledge to make London a global capital of Islamic banking and finance and inaugurating the West's first sharia-compliant sovereign bond offering.

July 11, 2014

The striking military advances of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (“ISIS”) in Syria and Iraq have been supported by measurable successes in the use of social media tools – Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter – as platforms for global recruitment of youth to Islamist extremist ideologies and jihadi violence.

July 11, 2014

Saudi Arabia's Islamic theocracy provided support to the extremist Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (“ISIS”) in an effort to overthrow the Alewite al-Assad regime, but now the Sunni monarchy fears the political blowback from ISIS's criticisms of the monarchy as corrupt and illegitimate.

July 11, 2014

Officials from both the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (“OIC”) and the European Union (“EU”) have denounced the recent communal violence by Buddhist militants against Muslim-majority towns in Sri Lanka, where Buddhist-Muslim violence has been rare.

July 11, 2014

The ascent of Sunni jihadi groups supported by U.S. allies such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey is creating a shift in Islamist alliance structures that, paradoxically, might lead to a U.S.-Iran channel aimed at recalibrating the Mideast's Sunni-Shiite balance.